Judie Charlton, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, WVU Medicine and
Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs, WVU School of Medicine
KRISTEN UPPERCUE
Judie Charlton, M.D., has been at the
forefront of female health care leadership
in West Virginia for the duration of her
career. Joining West Virginia University
(WVU) School of Medicine in 1989, she
worked her way up the ranks, accepting
an appointment as department chair of
ophthalmology in 2008. In 2010, she
was named WVU Medicine’s chief medical
officer, where she is responsible for over-
seeing clinical programs and ensuring
they address the needs of the state as
well as the school’s educational programs
and research initiatives. She also serves
as vice dean for clinical affairs and as
a board member of University Health
Associates, University Healthcare, WVU
Health System, Health Partners Network
and the Accountable Care Organization of
West Virginia. In 2019, she was listed in
Becker’s Hospital Review’s “100 Hospital
and Health System CMOs to Know.”
Charlton chose to specialize in ophthal-
mology because of the impact it has on
patients’ lives, its high success rate, its level
of precision and its use of cutting-edge
technology. She remembers receiving her
first pair of glasses in elementary school
and the impact it had on her.
“There is a wow factor in helping people
see well,” she says.
Charlton graduated from WVU with a
bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and a med-
ical degree. It was during her sophomore
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Photo by Greg Ellis/WVU.
year that WVU recognized her academic
performance and began waiving her tuition
fees. This gift inspired her to spend her
career giving back to WVU and serving
West Virginians.
“It was transformative to my life,” says
Charlton. “When later offered the oppor-
tunity to stay on as faculty at WVU, I
couldn’t think of a better way to pay back
those who made my education possible.”
Charlton has also paid it forward
through her work with glaucoma patients.
In recognition of her work in this area,
she was named the inaugural recipient of
the Judie F. Charlton Chair for Glaucoma
Outreach in 2014, an endowed chair that
has proven to be integral to WVU Eye
Institute’s efforts to address glaucoma care.
“Glaucoma is one of the leading causes
of preventable blindness, and it blinds
people slowly and silently,” she says.
“More than 1,000 individuals have been
screened, and our rate of finding ophthal-
mic conditions that merit further evalu-
ation is 40 percent.”
Charlton also spent 15 years as part of
an outreach team that provided care to
blind children in the country of St. Lucia.
“St. Lucia is a mountainous island with
geographic and socioeconomic challenges,
and in many ways it is like dropping West
Virginia in the middle of the Caribbean,”
she says. “The island has the highest inci-
dence of glaucoma in the world and was